Un-burning Bridges

Un-burning Bridges

By: Andrew Hines

This is the Avengers that we should have had the whole way through. A mix of the first-stringers and those that have been lost in the background for years. The greatest part of this book is exactly what has made the other teams so awesome, the way they interact. The team has almost never seen completely seen eye-to-eye and that's not going to change anytime soon, especially following the events of AvX. As in times past, they come together to get the job done despite their differences. With that being said, I have a feeling this is gonna be a great series.

Writer Rick Remender has had his hands on some great titles in the last few years, such as Venom, Uncanny X-Force and Secret Avengers. Just the intro into this comic, by itself, is fantastic. He gives long-time fans and newbies alike a great place to pick up from where AvX left off. Aside from reintroducing Havok into the comics, Remender also gives us our first look at the S-Men, a group of Red Skull acolytes. Aside from these little goodies, we get to see some good character interaction and above all are reminded what the X-Men were supposed to stand for. Remender's pacing, casting and dialogue are pretty good. My favorite bit, however, has to be Logan's speech at the very beginning. Simply wonderful.

John Cassaday's art (yeah, pencils, inks and colors) is great. It's very new and very good. I love the designs, the flashback panels and the transitions. Every bit of it feels different from a normal Avengers book and that's exactly how it's supposed to be. There are some great action panels here and some really in-your-face moments as well. The art is good throughout and I love the take on the new takes on Thor's and Havok's costumes. Havok's feels classic, yet refined, which is a step up from some of his stuff during the 90s. Then there's Thor's new costume and the biker gloves. Overall, a good issue for art.

This earns an "A" for being better than I really thought it would be. The only thing keeping it from being an "A+" is the weird cliff-hanger at the end of the issue.